A Novel Design of a Pre-separation Panel Structure to Protect Against the Impact of an Explosion in an Aircraft Plenum Chamber

To reduce the damage of the pressurizing panel structure of a fuselage caused by an explosion at the “least risk bomb location” in an aircraft structure, a new pre-separation panel structure was designed to resist blast loading. First, the dynamic strain response and morphology of impact damage of the new pre-separation panel were measured in an impact damage test. Second, the commercial software LS-DYNA was used to calculate the propagation of the blast shock wave, and the results were compared with empirical equations to verify the rationality of the numerical calculation method. Finally, the fluid–structure coupling method was used to calculate the damage process of the pre-separation panel structure under the impact of an explosion wave and an impact block. The calculated results were in good agreement with the test results, which showed the rationality of the calculation method and the model. The residual strength of the damaged pre-separation panel was significantly higher than that of the original damaged panel. The results show that the new pre-separation panel structure is reasonable and has certain significance for guiding the design of plenum chambers with strong resistance to implosion for aircraft fuselages.